You can buy a 1990 Miata for $1000 USD, and dump $15,000 USD in go fast bits into it. The car will crush a stock Evo at the track. Does that mean a Miata is a better "bang for buck" car than an Evo? I don't think so.

 

You basically described:

Focus RS
Golf R

Neither of them really compare to an Evo. I believe we already established that ad nauseam in this thread.

I went looking five years ago for an Evo replacement, after a brief time in a MK6 Golf R, I ended up in another Evo.

Both the Focus RS and the Golf R are great cars in their price point and if you only drive them on the street (which 80% of evom members do) then they can be great cars, but the reality is they are not 1:1 Evo replacements, I have honestly not found any car under $100k USD that are.

Cayman S, GT3, GT4 are the closest as far as a pure drivers car but they are completely different cars than the Evo, and now start at $70k USD.

 

I think you summed it up nicely. Especially the reference to Porches. Their maintenance costs are why I'd still prefer my Evo. A friend with a Cayman S sold it to buy a BRZ and a Miata to autox LOL. He has more fun in both of those than he did the Porsche, according to him. Not to mention the Miata is really, really, really well sorted. Damn he's fast in that thing. Anyway...
Mitsu hit the nail on the head with the Evo VIII and IX (and before, if we're including non-U.S.). Not since the 92-95 Civic/94-01 Integra has a company just happened to get it "just right". Once in a while, a company hits a home run and I think Mitsu did so with the '92-06 Evos.

 

I get what you're saying and I agree to an extent -- hence why I have owned and daily driven an Evo IX for almost eleven years. I don't feel like I'm "missing" anything. While some of it is useful, most of today's stuff is for lazy people.

I remember when my boss bought a new 2012 BMW 550i a few years back, he was showing me all the features. I thought it was cool, but knew that I didn't really care about most of it... the vibrating (if it senses that your head tilts down like you're falling asleep) and heated (if it's cold) steering wheel, the HUD (I can see the speedometer just fine), blind spot indicator (I can look over my shoulder to check my blind spots, the we're taught in Driver's Ed), massaging chairs (it's not that great), etc.

I can (and do) check my tire pressures at least monthly if not more often and know how to divide miles traveled by gallons consumed in order to calculate fuel economy. I don't need half of what the new computers/displays do, especially when the fuel economy calculations are usually a bit optimistic since most don't factor in fuel consumption when the car is on but not moving.

Agreed. Basically those cars are all that you could really swap in, based on those descriptions.

I've test driven a lot of cars and have pondered about other cars to get (and even have an active thread asking what I should lease while keeping my Evo as a weekend car) but nothing really jumps out at me. When I think of cars that are similar, such as the Golf R, it feels kind of redundant, even though admittedly it's a far more modern car that has a lot of refinement from a quality perspective, but I'd almost rather just stick to the Evo if I'm looking at another ~300 hp AWD four-door.

Agreed on the driver's cars you mentioned. I tracked a GT3 and had never felt more exhilaration from driving any other bone stock car, which includes a Cayman R (really good but just too restrained by its engine) and a Ferrari 458 (awesome but not nearly as much of an experience though it's definitely more of an occasion) on the same track.

One of my uncles who is a managing attorney and named partner of a firm representing Progressive lives in Newport Beach in a really beautiful home. He bought my aunt an Audi Q5 for Christmas a year or so ago but doesn't drive his base 911 Carrera because "maintenance is expensive" and instead drives a Ford. That should say it all. He mentioned a while ago that he was thinking about getting a new 911 but I'm certain he still wouldn't daily drive it. And we're talking about a guy whose commute is around 12 miles one-way but only goes to the office two or three days a week, since he has to fly to other offices the other workdays. So it's not as if he's racking up 20,000 miles annually.

Those cars you mentioned definitely got it right. It's not even an emotional attachment -- I just have never stumbled upon a new offering from another company that makes me lust after it to the point where my Evo doesn't feel as great as it used to. I went to dinner with this girl a couple of nights ago, and she always asks if I'm going to get a new car, because she knows that my car is eleven years old at this point but doesn't know the history of the car. But I do mention stuff that has caught my attention, but I told her I randomly felt like just building/restoring a car. She asked what, and the first thing I thought of was an Integra GS-R. (I'd have preferred a Type-R, but those are going to be harder to find and build as well, since those parts are going to be pricier and probably in shorter supply.)

 

I'm curious what maintenance you think is expensive on a Porsche that aren't just as expensive on an Evo?

The GT4 and GT3 are great track cars. I have a track buddy that tracks both and the GT3 is six seconds faster than my Evo 10 was with stock turbo, ohlins, e85, etc and the GT3 is 100% bone stock. We both have approx the same experience on that track. Almost ten years of experience for me. His GT4 is three seconds faster 100% bone stock.

Yes, they both are more than $100K USD and it's silly to compare it with a Evo that is approx $50k with the mods I had but hard to argue how much quicker they are totally stock.

 

Not just maintenance, but any time something goes wrong. Big $$$ to campaign a GT3 vs an Evo, especially if you like OEM parts. Comparing street cars, of course. Race car budgets on either go out the window
They are much faster, which is why I drool every time I see one (and would pick if I were wealthy). But you're gonna be paying for it.

Those are one of my favorite cars (Integras). They way they drive, the reliability, and the perfect seating position (for me), all had me sold. I owned a GS-R then bought a Type-R and loved both. For a daily driver, I'd opt for a GS-R, no doubt. I'd love another Type-R but 100k+mi examples are going for what I paid for one with 56k miles, back in the day. No thanks. That's Evo territory. Plus, I think I'd have more fun in an S2k, not that pricing is much better there...
Oh, and I live in Fresno, CA so I'd have about 20,000 asian dudes trying to steal the damned thing. I'm not exaggerating. Look it up.

 

Yea, good luck owning a ITR in California. You won't have it for long. Unless you NEVER are away from it. They get stolen left and right.

 

People now want an identity again, the plush cars these days are making peoples driving brains go to mush and people are wanting to go analogue again like vinyl records and long beards, they want to regain their individualality again, Golf Rs and AMGs dont cut it anymore, people want raw bumpy angry vicious power with a stick shift so they can once more become real men, but you know what they cant, cause we got em all!!!!!

 

This is said on seemingly every car forum, with invariably, the car that is the subject of the forum falls on the "right" side of the line.

I drove a Golf R earlier this week and owned a C63 AMG. They're not lesser cars than an Evo. Hell, the C63 is arguablly a rawer car given it's RWD, and all motor.

Buy whatever car you like. This condescending, "my car is a real car" attitude gets old and just makes certain car groups look like self-righteous d-bags who like the smell of their own exhaust fumes.

 

I somehow kept mine for 5 years. My town was top 10, if not #1 for "highest car theft rate" in California LOL. Yay. We were #11 in the nation for 2017. haha.
Considering our demographics, though... there are certain people that are doing most of it.
I think the only, ONLY reason I held on to mine without so much as a theft attempt (I even parked on the street for a year) is because I was deeply rooted into the local Honda community. If my car were stolen, everyone would know where it came from. I counted my blessings every day. You should have seen how inventive we got with kill switches.

Man, I miss that car so much.

 

That's true, and it reminds me of something from many years ago. In my younger, more reckless years (almost 20 years ago at this point, which is scary), I had a 1995 Honda Accord EX coupe and wanted to drop an H22 into it, which an older friend of mine who was really involved in the car scene said would be an easy swap, and there was a silver Prelude around the corner from my house. I told that friend of mine that I thought about "lifting" the motor from that car, but it turned out that he knew the guy who owned it. So I told him that I wouldn't do it, but ironically I noticed that that Prelude stopped parking outside on the driveway after that.

That aside, I remember basically any good Integra getting stolen around that time. That same friend of mine actually had a white turbo'd Integra GS-R that won some of the local Hot Import Nights events, and it got stolen and stripped.

 

My vote for a few notable cars, Golf R MK7 and modded as these are quick. Also The Merc AMG 63 line up 05 on up, Audi TT RS, Audi RS4, Audi A6 3.0T,. These are all going to cost a lot.

 

Yeah, the "scene" used to be bad. In my town, it still is. Even primered-out hatchbacks are still being stolen. Need a bumper cover? Steal a civic. Wheels? Take an Integra. A friend of mine still owns an ITR and won't take it out to movies, etc.
The same people in my town that steal civics are now starting to buy Evos, so I'm getting kinda worried, to tell the truth.

 

brakes... esp if they have the ceramics..

I have a friend that has a gt3 4.0 and we just co-drove his new 911 R on a 1800 km roadtrip, and I fully agree that those are great cars, but they do roll on some real wide semi slicks and that + 500 HP under the engine cover makes for a real fast track car..

However as a road car, and this really depends on the kid of roads you use, they are compromised somewhat. Also, the GT cars tend to be very valuable, and that makes you carefull about using them..
Funny thing is, that same friend asked for an evo, and we built up a real nice e9 for him...

 

No independent track person uses ceramics. So again, what are the big expensive maintenance bits conpared to an evo?